"COVID19's socio-economic impact on the cultural and artistic sectors has been unprecedented, as social distancing measures meant that they could not remain open. In addition to the devastating financial consequences, the promotion of culture and the use of art as tools for cohesion and education almost disappeared staying only at the core family level. In this context, steps should be taken to initiate real change in the way we protect and develop our common cultural heritage from an early age.In today's conditions, digital approaches to culture that promote active citizenship and social inclusion related to people's participation in culture are gaining importance.""Our Cultures"" brings together 7 cross-sector institutions from 6 different culturally diverse countries ( UK, Spain ,Turkey ,Portugal ,Italy and Greece) including schools, cultural and civil society NGOs. Our project focuses on providing art-based learning, creating digital concrete content and making the created content easily accessible open source in order to live, sustain and promote our common cultural heritage.Our project aims to create learning tools, resources, materials and training modules in order to encourage creativity and multiculturalism.Our main goal is to create active learning opportunities in formal and non-formal education institutions, through the use of technology in arts and education.Our project's intellectual outputs are: O1; Virtual Culture Travel (Time and Space Travel) (Mobile application)02; Experiential Learning Activity Books (Primary / Secondary School)O3; Cultural Heritage Awareness Materials (Digital Arts)We will also organise:6 national multipliers1 international multiplier2 LTTsKEY OBJECTIVES:* To grow a sense of curiosity and tolerance among students and educators for living in a global and interconnected world with digital cultural data tools by placing our cultural heritage at the very centre of our lives,* To obtain concrete inputs that will increase the intercultural interaction between cultural, artistic and equational institutions in a sustainable way and carry our cultural heritage to the future,* For children and young people to discover and experience our common cultural heritage inside and outside the classroom; to enable them to develop and strengthen their different identities within an interactive, democratic, and multicultural conscious citizenship perspective,* To ensure that children and young people have direct experience with the original heritage phenomenon (Experiential learning), be actively involved in the process, gaining commitment to the idea of ​​protecting cultural heritage, interpreting cultural heritage and seeking their own meaningful context behind the facts,* To make our students realize the local / universal dimension of culture through digital tools and arts: Students will reveal their feelings, thoughts and perceptions freely and sincerely through artistic activities, they will offer creative products for our cultural heritage.Students will be able to transfer their creative abilities to every aspect of their lives with the different perspectives they have gained on our cultural heritage, and they will be able to beautify their environment by gaining an aesthetic consciousness.* Developing digital literacy, collaboration and critical thinking skills of our participants through digital data tool (Web 2.0 tools, augmented reality) studies:Our participants will be able to use these competencies they have acquired on different platforms.* To make an impressive presentation of the cultural structures and areas in the region where our partners live, using the augmented reality method and 3D design technique:This tool will have interactive content that students can easily use in lessons and outside the classroom.Our Virtual Culture Travel Tool will make a tangible contribution to cultural tourism by making the regions where partners live a center of attraction.TARGET GROUPSStudents (7-15 years old), teachers and other educators and professionals working in formal (e.g. schools) and informal (e.g. in the community) settings. Secondary target groups include policy makers, decision makers, the media and general public as well as parents and carers. AMBITIONDuring times of despair, using the underlying values of restorative justice (e.g. power sharing, equality, dignity and respect) ""Our Cultures"" will create a sense of belonging and awareness about the common cultural and artistic heritage of Europe.The necessity of discovering different cultures through intercultural interactions and of course the dimension of the culture extending from local to universal make the transnational implementation of the project important and necessary in order to gain European awareness."

"<< Objectives >>• Favour the integration of collective in social disadvantage (immigrants, refugees, ethnic minorities, socioeconomic marginalized,...) that, also, are more susceptible to drop of the school in the first stages of their training.• Improve the formulae of attention of the pupils with special needs.• Improve the linguistic competence in English to all the participant pupils and teachers.• Increase the competence of our teachers through the formation in innovative and integrative methodologies.<< Implementation >>-Leaflets of the project-The Logo contest and the Election Day-The Erasmus corner-Charity/Solidarity Market titled ""Migrantes""-TV program: ""Inclusion in my school""-Erasmus days -Cine Forum-Inclusion Day-Photo exhibition -E- book-:""Everybody is Different, Everyone is Equal"" -Job-shadowing and Structured Courses/Workshops/Conferences-Seminars and Round table of discussion-Multilingual Dictionary-Web-site of the project-Skype conferences and Webinars-Padlet of discussion<< Results >>The results and the impact expected are: --the improvement in the integration of groups of students at risk of social exclusion;-the internationalization of the teachings and learning in our schools;-social changes in the perception of that which is different, --the acquisition of innovating methodological competences by our professionals and the improvement of the communicative capacity in English language of pupils and teachers.-Improvement in the use of new technologies (ICT)"

Since we live in the world in which a great role is played by mass media and modern technologies, we have decided to use them to make the learning process better and more effective. Lots of schools are equipped with modern facilities, which we would like to use to pursue our common goal – innovative education that goes beyond the borders of our countries. During the two years of realising the project we want to lay emphasis on using information and communication technologies. At the very beginning the participants will exchange their contact details and make contacts with the use of applications for mobile devices such as Viber and WhatsApp. Students and teachers will take part in monthly lessons using Skype. What is more, these groups will work with digital equipment i.e. cameras and video cameras. Thanks to that they will learn how to edit films and photos. The participants will know how robots work and they will create them by themselves. They will learn how to make presentations in Prezi and animations in Scratch. Undoubtedly, the great advantage of the project will be using the school electronic platform which enables communication between students, teachers and parents. The participants will manage the official website of our project. While travelling abroad we will learn from each other and share our experience during regular classes as well as workshops organised at schools and outside. We are planning to make interesting and more innovative lessons e.g. in a museum or as a meeting with a famous person. A very important element of our actions will be an analysis of the local job market made by students. Afterwards, the students will have to draw conclusions and carry out research on jobs that will be popular in the future and what stages will be necessary to go through in order to get these jobs. The students will learn how to write a CV and job applications as well as they will take part in job interviews. The emphasis will be put on communication in English. We will check students' progress by giving them tests every several months. Students from poor or dysfunctional families who are at risk of social exclusion and digital divide will be involved in the project. The actions in which they will be engaged will enable them to believe in themselves, achieve probably their first success, gain self-confidence and learn independence. Regular contacts of students and teachers with their international partners will be a crucial aspect of good cooperation. We are planning to achieve it thanks to the partnership on the eTwinning platform, where all the participants will chat and present their products. Regular evaluation made by students and teachers after each foreign travel will help us notice advantages and set out guidelines for future in order to make our cooperation better. It is obvious that modern technologies are not just the objective of the project but we will use them to get familiar with cultures and traditions of the participating countries – the places, dances, songs, dishes, customs and ways of spending free time popular in our regions.

<< Background >>The reason why we have requested this project is that we have detected that actions against climate change are not being implemented at the speed required by the urgency of the situation. We believe that one of the most urgent measures to be taken against climate change is waste reduction. Therefore, we think it is very important to instil in primary and secondary school children the idea of reusing waste to produce new things in a creative and attractive way (upcycling).With this project we want to support teachers, school leaders and other teaching professions with their professional development and provide them with the tools and resources they need to be able to understand the possibilities that upcycling has for multidisciplinary and project-based education and provide them with practical ideas on how to implement it in the classroom as part of the school curriculum. The partners identified common needs, which were further analysed during the preparation of the application. Based on the conclusions drawn, the partners have defined the needs and set priorities and objectives.The direct target group of the project is primary and secondary schools, school teachers and environmental associations. The identified needs we want to satisfy are: -Lack of interdisciplinary collaboration in schools. Subjects are usually taught separately, so pupils lack a holistic view, which means that they often do not see the practical application of what they study, and they lack motivation. -Lack of competences to foster initiative and entrepreneurship in different areas of education. -Lack of adapted materials for primary and secondary school teachers to motivate students' interest in STEM. The indirect target group of the project is primary and secondary students, families, city councils and municipalities, policymakers in the field of education and environment, partner organisations and stakeholders. The identified needs that we want to satisfy are: -Lack of knowledge about the true possibilities of upcycling, which many people confuse with recycling. -Lack of cooperation between schools, public and private companies. -Lack of awareness of individual responsibility to act against climate change. -Lack of awareness in society of the need for less waste in general to help tackle climate change and of the urgency that these measures require. Preventing products and materials from becoming waste for as long as possible and turning waste that cannot be avoided into a resource are key steps to achieve a greener, more circular economy. If we look at the waste hierarchy defined by EU Waste Framework Directive, we can see that prevention and re-use are the most preferred options. Introducing upcycling to school educators, we meet some priorities in the field of school education:-Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, by turning ideas into actions.-Cultural awareness and expression, as upcycling involves in some aspect knowing, understanding, appreciating and valuing the different cultural and artistic demonstrations. -Learning to learn, by motivating to learn in a non-formal and informal context.Upcycling helps to develop a range of other skills and abilities such as creativity, innovation and critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, respect for the environment. This way, the project supports teachers in delivering competency-based teaching.The advantages of cooperating with transnational partners to achieve the project objectives are to foster the creation of synergies between organisations able to disseminate and exploit the project results, to learn from each other, because the partners have different but complementary competences and experiences, and to create a network of actors active in the field of social inclusion at European level.<< Objectives >>The objectives we want to achieve with this project are to: -Raise schoolchildren's awareness of environmental challenges and climate change.-Develop innovative practices for pupils to become agents of change in using fewer resources, reducing waste use and offsetting carbon footprint emissions.-Develop the sustainability competences of schoolteachers, leaders, and staff -Promote interdisciplinary collaboration, innovative learning and the development of creativity.-Promote interdisciplinary teaching in cultural, environmental, economic, design and other contexts.-Increase sense of initiative and entrepreneurship of schoolchildren-Foster innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship in different fields of education.The ultimate goal is to disseminate the results widely and to create a network of interested entities and stakeholders. This will be achieved through the implementation of the dissemination strategy and will be highlighted through the partners' dissemination records, but also on the project website, which will host all the material and resources developed throughout the project, as well as other events and media coverage. All partners will be involved from the beginning of the project in dissemination activities.The strategy of sustainability and exploitation of results is also very important to ensure that all products, materials and results developed within the project reach as many people as possible and that the project activities and practice have an impact on the target groups and decision-makers beyond the end of the project.Through multiplier events and other local awareness-raising actions, schools and NGOs will develop partnerships and seek public and private sponsors who can help them fund this initiative.<< Implementation >>The activities to be implemented throughout the project are: All activities that will lead to the development of the PROJECT RESULTSR1. Development of the conceptual background and the framework for the blended courseR1/A1 - Development of the framework (analysis and contrasting the experiences and good practices on national level) R1/A2 - Case study research R1/A3 - Elaboration of the framework of the blended course:R1/A4 - Peer evaluation and adjustments. Translation of the Methodology in partners’ language.R1/A5 - Design and development of the website and open educational resource in English and partner languages.R2. Blended course for educators about the importance of recycling/upcycling with practical ideas on how to implement this in and outside the classroom.R2/A1 - Development of the methodological framework for the implementation (steps, deadlines, etc.) and didactic grid.R2/A2 - Development of the contents of the Training MaterialsR2/A3 - Internal peer-evaluation of the Training Materials and adjustmentsR2/A4 - Fine-tuning of the training materials and adaptation into partners’ languages.R2/A5 - Piloting with educators on national levelR2/A6 - Finetuning of the materials in partner languages R3. Cycle of webinars: training webinars on creative process planning.R3/A1 - Development of the plan and programme of the webinars and their promotionR3/A2 - Organisation of national and international webinarsR3/A3 - Recording and edition of the videos promoting upcyclingR3/A4 - Development of the platform section for webinars and videosR4. Guide including recommendations on how to implement upcycling to educators and families.R4/A1 – Development of the guide including recommendations to educators and parents/families on how to implement upcycling with schoolchildrenR4/A2 - Peer-evaluation and fine-tuningR4/A3 - Adaptation of the guide in national languagesR4/A4 - Campaign on raising awareness on upcycling: short podcasts with experiences of schoolchildren Activities related to DISSEMINATION -Creation and maintenance of the website and the educational platform. -Creation and maintenance of the Facebook profile -Design and development of dissemination materials (newsletters, brochure...) -Publication of articles in mass media on local/regional/national/ international level-Publications on EU platforms to support dissemination activities, e.g. eTwinning and School Education Gateway platforms.-Regular contact with target groups and all entities interested in the project. -Multiplier events Activities related to QUALITY CONTROL -Establishment of the quality control committee -Monitoring of compliance with qualitative and quantitative indicators. -Establishment and follow-up of expectation and satisfaction surveys. Activities related to SUSTAINABILITY and EXPLOITATION OF RESULTS:-Elaboration of declarations of support and signature by the partner organisations-Maintenance of the website and the online platform for at least three years after the end of the project.<< Results >>The tangible results of the project will be:-A collection of at least 24 good practices about upcycling experiences targeting schoolchildren, in formal, informal, and non-formal education (R1)-16 case studies prepared and analysed by each partner (R1)-A blended course for educators about the importance of recycling/upcycling with practical ideas on how to implement this in the classroom in English and in partner languages (R2)-3 webinars in English organised collaboratively by all the partners (R3)-7 webinars in partners’ languages - 1 webinar per country (R3)-7 videos in English and partners’ language - 1 per country (R3)-7 podcasts developed and recorded by school children - 1 per country (R4)-Guide including recommendations on how to implement upcycling to educators and families in English and in partner languages (R4)-A website and an open educational platform in English and in partner languages -5 Transnational meetings-6 Multiplier events-56 educators will participate in the piloting and the blended course at the national level Other project results will be: -Exchange of ideas, good practices, methodology and pedagogical materials between professionals working in primary and secondary education and environmental organisations. -Improved skills of primary and secondary school teachers to give a multidisciplinary approach to teaching and integrate different subjects (STEAM).-Transfer of knowledge about different educational systems and perspectives. -Increased awareness of the benefits of upcycling to achieve a greener and circular economy and contribute to reducing the carbon footprint.-Raising awareness of the need for initiatives that help to combat climate change.-Encouraging innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship in different areas of educationIn the medium and long term, the partners expect the project to help: -Primary and secondary school teachers will improve their knowledge and skills to offer multidisciplinary, more practical and relevant training to the needs of the society.-The educational offer of primary and secondary schools will be more motivating for students, who will be better prepared to face the challenges of the future society, especially those related to the environment. -Primary and secondary teachers will improve their professional skills and, thus, be able to improve the teaching methods used in their schools. -Cooperation and synergies between organisations active in the field of primary and secondary education and environmental organisations will be strengthened.More specifically, it is expected that during the implementation of the project and after its completion, primary and secondary school teachers, other staff of schools and environmental organisations will:-Strengthen their professional competences and become familiar with tools and techniques to motivate their students.-Improve their knowledge of accessibility and the adaptation of the learning materials to the needs of the students. -Be able to offer better and higher quality educational programmes and activities.In addition, primary and secondary school students and their families will:-Be more motivated to learn and engaged in lifelong learning.-Be more active and engaged citizens in their community.-Become more aware of the importance of reducing the carbon footprint and, thus, contributing to fight against the climate change.-Become more aware of the importance of individual actions to combat the climate change.-Learn about upcycling and be able to use waste to make new products in a creative way, which will help reduce their carbon footprint. -Become agents of change in the fight against climate change.

Nowadays all teachers, students, parents and partners realize that schools today need to be transformed into a place of exchange of knowledge and ideas where the creative potential of learners can be developed, where the strive for achieving progress will make students search for new opportunities for acquisition of knowledge. As schools are living organisms they need to continuously develop in order to meet the requirements of the European education and the growing needs of young people. Our project is aimed at upgrading the research and practical knowledge and skills of the students in the field of natural sciences in order to properly understand the impact of climate change on the formation of biodiversity before and now and to find ways to improve the situation in the future. The planned team activities will provoke interest formation and motivation, positive self-expression, interaction, control and self-control. Outdoor and project-based training will enhance participants' aspirations for self-improvement with environmental focus, for personal activity and social inclusion, for applying their own ideas and experiences in various conditions. Recognizing the importance of knowledge about nature, biodiversity and how to conserve them, we will integrate project activities into the curriculum of biology, geography, fine arts and ICT, which will be a prerequisite for achieving the project's goals. Thus the participants will analyze environmental issues, to engage in problem solving, and to take action to sustain and improve the environment.Societies tend to be alienated of such a situation and so educators have to come up with innovative solutions and approaches to the challenges currently being faced.The project partners will build eco-corners то transform the school a more desirable area for young people. They will create a sustainable attitude to the environment, which will affect their emotional and behavioral development.At school age, the foundations of eco-education are laid for children in the context of the extremely innovative diversity of technologies and activities. Planning and conducting eco-education classes using multimedia devices will allow the educational content to be enriched visually and soundly. During the planned activities the students will develop knowledge and understanding about:•identifying and assessing environmental problems;•communicating environmental problems to others;•resolving environmental problems;•adopting behaviours and practices that protect the environment;•the use of environmental resources following the three R’s; Reduction, Re-using and Recycling;•progress of technologies to better satisfy human needs without any detriment to the environment;•understanding the physical environment around us, including knowledge about its resources and the potential damage caused through use and misuse or resources.Project activities in all three mobilities and on eTwinning platform will be held with the participation of students and teachers. The participants will conduct observations, research and analysis. They will discuss and develop digital booklets of examples of environmental studies, a digital vocabulary with environmental terms and concepts, eco-corners for conducting outdoor classes and a long-term international strategy for building an Eco-school. These training sessions will transform the activities started with the еTwinning project “Research and conservation of biodiversity and climate” from a virtual level into real face to face meetings. Our objective is to make students draw conclusions with respect to the relation past – present – future. That is why the project research activities will be developed into three stages: the first – investigation of the past, the second – reflection of the past into the present, what can be changed and improved, and the third – future tendencies. At least 54 students will be directly involved in the three project mobility. The planned activities are expected to influence all students, pedagogical and non-teaching staff in partner schools. The students will be trained to work in a teams in their organizations, moreover they will have to form transnational teams which would considerably increase their motivations. During the implementation of the project they will explore the flora and fauna of three different marine areas - the coastline of the southern Black Sea coast and the Mediterranean Sea and the Lisbon coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Biodeversity maps will be developed and disseminated with augmented reality tools.Education for Sustainable Development will be integrated within the whole curriculum and cannot be tackled as a separate subject. The issues covered in partner schools will include local examples and encourage critical thinking, problem solving techniques and adopting behaviours and practices that protect the environment.